Page 76 - Exile-ebook

76 AN EXILE OF THE MIND BOMBED BUT NOT BOWED 77

Women ran factories and built vehicles.

scorching desert calculated the pay Class known as ‘The Babies’. With
of a diminishing army, oblivious to feet held suspended by a distraught
this stage show on the home front. mother, I clutched at the school
In a dingy room with mould railings not yet requisitioned for
loitering in the wallpaper, hushed tanks and dragged screaming into
up whisperings of earthly delights a cavern of a school. At three years
drowned out my snuffling. Smacked old, my 14-year sentence began
about the ear to stop my blubber- with no parole for good behaviour.
ing, I was pushed noseward to the The learning process accelerated
corner to hear a fervent recital of by wartime, freed women to fill the
muffled passion and complaining boots of a dwindled manpower.
bedsprings. The gas meter clicked Teachers became babysitters as they
away the pennies and over the chair struggled to impart knowledge to a
lay crumpled a GI’s uniform. crèche of toddlers. Etienne du Plessis Collection.
After liberation from beanbag In a drab classroom of the school,
confinement in the hospital my
formal schooling began in First Boys recycling waste in 1944.